Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Inspired by her father's tales of the Old Man in the Moon and the Jade Dragon, a young Chinese girl sets off from her poor village in the Fruitless Mountain to change her family's fortunes. What follows is a fantastic journey complete with talking goldfish and evil tigers, deftly interwoven with elements of Chinese folklore and framed by the art of storytelling. On her quest to find the Man in the Moon, Minli meets an enchanting cast of characters, each with their own tale to tell: the frustrated red dragon who cannot fly, the peasant boy with a secret friend, and a set of twins from a land where the sky rains seeds. Of course, each of the stories is somehow connected to Minli's fate. While the conclusion is somewhat contrived, readers will enjoy following the feisty heroine as she travels through this lush, mythical world; the episodic structure also lends itself easily to reading aloud, and listeners will be eager to share tales of their own journeys. Final illustrations not seen.